Abstract
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Accumulating evidence indicates that aberrant activation of certain cellular signaling pathways occurs during the development and progression of oral cancer. The purpose of this study was to analyze the scientometric characteristics of Wnt and Notch pathways in oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the papers on Wnt and Notch pathways in OPMD/OSCC were comprehensively retrieved from the Scopus database. RESULTS: A total of 301 and 169 papers on Wnt and Notch signaling pathway in the field of OPMD/OSCC were retrieved, respectively. As for Wnt pathway in OPMD/OSCC research, distinctive keywords included canonical Wnt signaling, β-catenin, CTNNB1 protein, cyclin D1, frizzled protein, Myc, Bcl-2, transcription factor, DNA methylation, long noncoding RNA, and microRNA. As for Notch pathway, distinctive keywords of bioresearch aspect included cancer stem cell, angiogenesis, genetic association, oncogene, and Jagged1. There were the same common keywords of bioresearch aspect, such as metabolism, genetics, signal transduction, apoptosis, cell proliferation, carcinogenesis, tumor marker, epithelial mesenchymal transition, protein function, drug screening, and gene mutation. CONCLUSION: This study for the first time elucidated the scientometric characteristics of all the publications on Wnt and Notch pathways in OPMD/OSCC, and would provide new insights for researchers to delve into the mechanisms of Wnt and Notch related OPMD/OSCC and translate into clinical studies.